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Getting a player out?

Like many of you I play in several leagues in Southern Ontario. Also probably like you I’ve noticed several talented players and put them in contact with the appropriate touring coaches so that they are placed on touring teams. All have met with general approval and have become good or great players in the region.

Of course, one runs into various personalities and problems as one mentors these players. Many problems are easy to solve and simple require training. Some problems though I lack experience with. I have one particular player that’s developing quite well and I expect will be a National level player in the next couple of years. His throws are excellent, he’s confident with his cuts, a great handler in the making, and a dominating striker right now. Unfortunately he makes a few errors once in a while. His error rate is far less than more established players but he takes each mistake badly. He gets into his own head.

How does one help and coach a player that is so hard on them self that they bench themselves? I can urge him back into the game and he’ll play but he’ll be stewing and I can see that he’s taken the edge off of his game. Some players I know play better when angry but most play worse. It’s not a matter of him being angry at anybody but himself. Angry and disappointed.

One thought on “Getting a player out?”

I think there are probably 3 states of mind that result in a player losing out on valuable experience. 1) The first is perceived failure. The problem with this state of mind is that the player is constantly thinking that every missed play is a failure on their part, rather than treating each point they play as a piece of experience they can learn from. 2) The polar opposite is the indifferent player who fails to gain experience because they just don’t care. 3) The last state of mind is arrogance, where you think that you can’t become any better than you already are, because you seem to be better than everyone else.

All these states result in the player not processing their errors properly and correcting/improving upon them. Psychologically, the player needs to realize that every point he plays, good or bad, is a valid experience that he can take valuable information from to improve his game. At that point, it becomes easier to revisit those past events. Everyone has times where they feel down on themselves, but the sooner he/she can stop thinking in terms of “I just got owned on D” to “What can I do different to stop that guy from getting that disc?”, the sooner he/she can take his/her game to the next level.